FROM THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN!

Boy oh boy! After reading many of these postings and hearing all of this, i wonder, or maybe it's no wonder.! No wonder the zoning and planning dept. Has banded together in task force status with building and safety, the fire department,sanitation, and the sheriffs department and have gone into the suburbs to terrorize american's for being americans.

No one has the right to tell a man who has worked hard everyday to pay $300,000.00 plus for a place, rather a castle, or a sanctuary, or simply home sweet home, that he can not work on anything in his backyard or garage such as an old chevy. That treasure that he dreams everyday about all he will do once he has saved enough, you know about the time the kids are not kids anymore.

Reward time, for all the sacrifices you've made, now you have that extra time and what happens. There is a task force that visited the rental house nextdoor because they were storing their old major appliances on the porch. They went into the yard and happened to look over into my yard. An assumption and an opinion was then formed and my treasures, items i have purchased and collected for years are labeled as junk, scrap,trash, and abandoned and or inoperable vehicles. I'm reading all of this from a paper i found nailed to my front door,(which really messed up my $250.00 hardwood door) it goes on to say that this junk and the cars (2) must be removed immediately from my yard. Yes that's right my yard.
Now this is no junk yard. This is a very well thought out and organized yard and garage. Set up with all the codes and with my neighbors happiness

in mind of course. My garage is separate from the house and in the back yard. You can see anything from the front and it doesn't look bad from the sides either. I don't have anything higher than and or leaning on my block walls. Hey i don't need a baby sitter i do the right thing without having to be told thank you very much boys and girls.

The task force returned 9 days later. It was then i told that i can't store, or operate an air compressor, a drill press, welder or grinder in my garage or yard and that these things are considered industrial machinery and are not permitted on my property period. The next one is the killer of them all. I am told that i have illegally converted my garage , yes,"my garage" into a storage facillity and that i'll have to make it so two cars can pull in and out of it at any time. Right before their eyes is a 38' tandem car port which they label as an un-permitted structure and tell me that i have to tear it down.

That was the last straw. I could not hear one more word. I told them that if what they say is true then i'm going right now to get my gun and blow my head off because i won't be able to accept
any of this crap. If i can't work in my garage as i always have since i was a small boy and if all the thousands of dollars in tools and stuff that i have spent all my personal extra monies on over the years and i can not use them in "my" own yard and or garage and i can't keep or work on my antique cars i want to die, thats it i told them.

Then i said to them. You guys must be out of your minds to think that your job is to come to my house and try to pass this crap off on me they should reveiw the purpose and possibly get a grip.

I asked them if they believed that their job was to make people lives harder and that the laws they beleived they were hired to enforce were enacted as restrictions on the people just for let say, as control measures by the government. One of them actually said yes to me. They then left saying i would be contacted by mail within 30 days. No letter ever followed. Ten months later they (6 guys & 1 sheriff) at 9:30 am knock at my door un announced. They tell me that they are here to see what progress i have made with my yard.

All i can say is that this is a discrace and so unprofessional it stinks, this is not the purpose now and never was the purpose or the reason the zoning & planning dept was founded. I told them it was founded to serve in the best interest of the people and to improve the quality of life for all.

Administrator's note

1) This post was originally posted in the wrong forum (as a followup to a note regarding the ranking system in "About Cyburbia"). I moved it to Planning Peeves, which is a more appropriate forum.

2) This post was originally ALL CAPS, and thus considered SHOUTING. I ran it through MS Word to put the text in sentence case, copied it, and pasted it back in here. From the rules ...

It's to the left of the [A] key Typing a message ENTIRELY IN CAPITAL LETTERS is the equivalent of SHOUTING. Such messages will be removed, along with messages typed in 37337 hAqR sTyLe. Sorry, dOoDz.

That's the last time I'll do that. Future messages that YELL will be deleted, content regardless.

I'll also post this rule, just as a reminder.

No trolling. Don't make posts that are inflammatory just to get people riled up. Substance is the key to not being labeled a troll. Polemic and devil's advocacy are welcome, but discussions should not deteriorate into alt.planning.urban style shouting matches. Moderators have the right to remove discussions if they appear to become hostile.

Contrarian POVs are welcome (after all, there's a bunch of conservatives that are active participants in the forums ) but be aware of the fine line between being upset versus "trolling."

Growth for growth's sake is the ideology of the cancer cell. -- Edward Abbey

We don't know all the details, but IMO this could be a prime example of over zealous regulations and personnel. We don't touch (look) at anything in an enclosed garage unless there is a neighborhood complaint. And we usually leave back yards alone unless it somehow causes disruption to the neighborhood. There are too many real issues in the community.

Truthfully I'd love to know if he really has an issue or not. If it doesn't constitute a fire hazard and it's fully out of site, should planners really be wasting their energy on it? I know I don't have enough time to do what I have to do much less to make work for myself.

Many Many Many times we will receive complaints from the public about a site (ie: remote control car race track in someone's back yard that is used x times a week with 50 rc car enthusiasts, etc), so Planning or Building or whoever will go out to the site, notice that whatever is in non-conformance and even if it isn't that huge of a deal, the problem has to be dealt with. The violator will invariably insist that he has all the neighbors on HIS side, which isn't true, because it only takes one complaint to get someone out there eventually. The violator then feels like the Town is "picking on" him/her, when in truth the Town really wishes the problem could be a civil matter so that they could just stay the hell out of it. But this may be an explanation. I am curious to hear Hawthorne's response.